Punching someone in the face is better than war
So I randomly picked this town for a segment of the story/screenplay I'm writing: Cochabamba, Bolivia (picked for its South American location, strong indigenous culture, and similarity to the name of another city in another part of the world). One fun thing about writing this has been researching the settings and incorporating interesting stuff about the locales (French Lick, Indiana is the other main setting) into the story.
Yesterday in the newspaper here in London there was a picture of two indigenous middle-aged Bolivian women PUNCHING EACH OTHER IN THE FACE.
Turns out that Southern Bolivia (Cochabamba is more central, so incorporating this meant: road trip), there are annual fighting festivals. All the folks from the mountainside dress up and drink up and wander down the mountains. In the neutral settings of the valley they eat and drink and dance and play music and FIGHT.
The fighting is watched over by police, and most times it's just a couple of amateurs throwing haymakers and one guy falls down and has a bloody nose and that's that. But people do die and get hurt pretty bad as well. And women fight. And kids. Two at a time by the looks of it.
As bad as it all sounds (and if you watch the Al Jazeera video of the event on YouTube -- the visuals are admittedly more disturbing than the description), it's still got to be more reasonable than war. So much more.
It's a fair fight by two groups that don't get along for one reason or another (in this case it's usually peasants v mestizos). They use their fists. Everyone is accountable for what happens and everything stays out in the open. And no one fights on your behalf -- if you want to fight, you fight. There are no Oval Offices or red phones. There are no civilian casualties and no friendly fire.
And at the end of the day, everyone goes back up the mountain and sobers up.
Yesterday in the newspaper here in London there was a picture of two indigenous middle-aged Bolivian women PUNCHING EACH OTHER IN THE FACE.
Turns out that Southern Bolivia (Cochabamba is more central, so incorporating this meant: road trip), there are annual fighting festivals. All the folks from the mountainside dress up and drink up and wander down the mountains. In the neutral settings of the valley they eat and drink and dance and play music and FIGHT.
The fighting is watched over by police, and most times it's just a couple of amateurs throwing haymakers and one guy falls down and has a bloody nose and that's that. But people do die and get hurt pretty bad as well. And women fight. And kids. Two at a time by the looks of it.
As bad as it all sounds (and if you watch the Al Jazeera video of the event on YouTube -- the visuals are admittedly more disturbing than the description), it's still got to be more reasonable than war. So much more.
It's a fair fight by two groups that don't get along for one reason or another (in this case it's usually peasants v mestizos). They use their fists. Everyone is accountable for what happens and everything stays out in the open. And no one fights on your behalf -- if you want to fight, you fight. There are no Oval Offices or red phones. There are no civilian casualties and no friendly fire.
And at the end of the day, everyone goes back up the mountain and sobers up.
4 comments:
Have you been to Bolivia? There are plenty of civilian casualties and nothing about life there is fair. Apparently, though, political unrest is not as newsworthy as drunken fistfights. Hmmm.
wasn't in any way offering bolivia up as a model of how things should be done. just offering up the insight that a seemingly savage festival in Bolivia is ironically so much more humane and possibly innovative when compared to modern warfare - dropping bombs on foreign targets and then censoring the footage on TV for the folks financing the terror.
Eric your so full of crap. If anything the media is more biased to your screwed up beliefs. If a few "civilians" get knocked off along with several terroists the world is still better off. Renouce your US citizenship and stay where you are and live with the sheep. Your a coward with lots of money preaching to the world how they should live when you yourself endulge in wasting money traveling the world and living a upper class life style all the while telling other people how they should GIVE GIVE GIVE to the needy blah blah blah. Your pathetic! I am only sorry I cant say this to your face.
This is getting rowdy! Fantastic.
Not sure when I covered many of the topics or positions you're projecting on me -- giving to the needy or being preachy (although I do admit to doing both all the time). My post was about how bombing is less civilized than a fist fight, simple as that.
Why are you commenting anonymously? If you really feel this way I'm happy to talk about it. If you're a friend of mine then I have enough respect for you to listen to your opinions, and you shouldn't feel like you need to keep your identity secret. All this buried resentment can't be helping anything, right or wrong.
I know I'm not perfect and have never claimed to be. I'm just trying to be a good person and doing the best I can. This is my first time living. And yes I know I fail consistently and constantly - I think we can all admit that we do. We're flawed in our creation - broken to start with. And that includes civilians and terrorists and left and right and even "the media".
Anyhow sorry you think I'm a fraud but at least I'm signing my name.
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